ZUCCHERO is an Italian singer, musician and songwriter. His stage name is the Italian word for "sugar", as his elementary teacher used to call him. His music is largely inspired by gospel, soul, blues and rock music, and alternates between Italian ballads and more rhythmic R&B-boogie-like pieces. He is credited as the "father of Italian blues", introducing blues to the big stage in Italy.[ He is one of the few European blues artists who still enjoys great international success.

In his career, spanning four decades, ZUCCHERO has sold over 60 million records around the world, and internationally his most successful singles are "Diamante", "Il Volo/My Love", "Baila (Sexy Thing)/Baila morena", and the duet "Senza una donna (Without a Woman)" with Paul Young. He has won numerous awards, including four Festivalbar, nine Wind Music Awards, two World Music Awards (1993, 1996), six IFPI Europe Platinum Awards,[8] and a Grammy Award nomination. He has collaborated and performed with many famous artists, including Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Brian May, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, B. B. King, Sting, Buddy Guy, Bono, Bryan Adams, Dolores O'Riordan, Paul Young, Peter Gabriel, Luciano Pavarotti, and Andrea Bocelli.

PHOTO copyright De Danielle dk - Trabajo propio, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2568564

In November 2008, the album "Live in Italy" was released. It was a double package, 2 CDs + 2 DVDs of recorded and filmed footage capturing the magic atmosphere of the concerts held in Milan's San Siro Stadium and the Arena in Verona. Again, the album was a huge, worldwide success.

PHOTO By Meyer-Konstanz - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=134314981

Then in 2009, following the terrible earthquake which shook the central Italian town of L'Aquila on April 24th, Zucchero and other major Italian artists joined forces to record a single called "Domani 21-04-09" (Tomorrow 21-04-09), with all proceeds from the sale of this single going to the rebuilding and restoration of the "Alfredo Casella" Academy of Music and the Stabile Theatre of Abruzzo in L'Aquila.

At the VII Ischia Global Film & Music Fest Zucchero and Paul Haggis presented Sting with an award, and later on during the gala Zucchero gave a surprize performance with Sting and Andrea Bocelli. On the second day of the event it was Zucchero's turn to receive an award, presented to him by Sting and his wife Trudie Styler.

Zucchero was invited to the festivities for Nelson Mandela's 91st birthday and to take part in the "46664 Make An Imprint" concert held at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Other artists performing were Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Will.I.Am, Josh Groban, Carla Bruni, Dave Stewart, Wyclef Jean, Alicia Keys, Angelique Kidjo, Whoopi Goldberg, Forest Whitaker, Morgan Freeman and many more. Zucchero, who was introduced to the audience as "the biggest rockstar in Italy," sang "You Are So Beautiful" and then joined the other stars to sing the chorus accompanying Stevie Wonder's rendition of "Happy Birthday."

A terrible disaster at Viareggio railway station in Tuscany (June 30th 2009) led Zucchero and promoter Mimmo d'Alessandro to organize a "Concert For Viareggio — Lest We Forget." Accompanied by a house band formed by Massimo Marcolini (musical director and guiitarist), Andrea Cozzani (bass), Guido Carli (drums), Giuseppe Zito (keyboards), Eros Cristiani (keyboards), Joe Damiani (percussion), Sara Grimaldi (vocalist), Stefania Orrico (vocalist), Mario Schilirò (guitar), Derek Wilson (drums), James Thompson (sax) and Massimo Greco (trumpet). Zucchero sang "Diavolo In Me" with Solomon Burke, "Baila (Sexy Thing)," "Dio è Morto" with Bebbe Carletti from The Nomadi, "Dune Mosse" with Jeff Beck on guitar, "Every Breath You Take" with Sting, "Fragile" with Sting and Jeff Beck, "Così Celeste" with the Puccini Festival Choir and "Miserere" performed as a virtual duet with Luciano Pavarotti on the mega screens.

November 2010 saw the release of 'Chocabeck,' already hailed as one of the best, if not the best album ever written by Zucchero. Recorded across the Globe including stints in Los Angeles, Bolgheri, and London the album featured production from some of music's best known alumni including Don Was (The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and Roy Orbison) and Brendan O'Brien (AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam). Additional production also came from people who were at the helm of the incredibly successful last Coldplay record (Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends) messrs Jon Hopkins and Davide Rossi. Featuring some of Zucchero's most poignant and touching lyrics he also managed to enlist the assistance of his good friends Bono (who the lyrics for the track 'Someone Else's Tears' ((Il Suono Della Domenica)) and Brian Wilson (who recorded backing vocals for the title track). With this record Zucchero opened up a new chapter in his illustrious and coveted career.

'Chocabeck' was also the name of Zucchero's acclaimed 'Chocabeck World Tour' that saw him to play more than one hundred concerts in Europe, North America and Latin America.

In summer 2012 Zucchero recorded in Havana 'La Sesión Cubana,' an album that featured collaborations from some of Cuba's most important musicians. The album was preceded by the first worldwide single "Guantanamera (Guajira)," which was produced by Zucchero and Don Was, and mixed by Michael Brauer. 'La sesión cubana' combined seven brand new songs with six newly arranged Zucchero hits ("Baila," "Un Kilo," "Così Celeste," "Cuba Libre," "Everybody's got to learn sometime" and "L'Urlo"). The new recordings consisted of the first single "Guantanamera (Guajira)," adapted by Zucchero into Italian, original compositions "Love is all around" and "Sabor a ti," and covers "Never is a moment," "Nena," "Pana" and "Ave Maria no morro." "Nena" and "Pana" are in Spanish, the second one a duet with Bebe, and "Ave Maria no morro," sung in Portuguese, was a duet with one of the most prestigious singers of contemporary Brazilian music, Djavan.

Zucchero described his album in his own words: My music, as everybody knows, comes from blues, from soul, from gospel. This project is a trip from New Orleans to Cuba via Mexicali. Latin, Cuban, tex-mex sounds and rhythms melt together dancing. "Hasta l'asta siempre."

The album was launched with a mega concert event at the University of Arts of Cuba with the collaboration of the Cuban Culture minister, the Cuban Institute of Music and the Italian embassy in Havana. Zucchero performed in front of 80,000 people.

In 2013, Zucchero was invited to take part at the "Los Angeles, Italia — Film, Fashion & Art Fest" the night before the annual Academy Awards. At the Grammy Museum, he received the "L.A. Italian Excellence Award 2013'' . The night after, at the Chinese Theatre there was a the premiere of the recording of the Havana concert that took place in December.

In the same year he brought his tour to Australia. After 3 sold-out dates at the Arena of Verona, La Sesiòn Cubana World Tour 2013 arrived in Europe with more than 60 dates including a 4th Arena di Verona show.

Zucchero took part at the flash-mob wanted and organized by Bono in London called "Agit8," where he sang "Love is all around" transformed for the occasion to "Love is still around" and then, by popular demand, "Everybody's got to learn something."

The Italian and International version of the cd+dvd live "Una rosa blanca" that contained the recording of legendary Cuba concert was released in December 2013.

The following year Zucchero embarked on his Americana Tour 2014, which lasted 2 months and consisted of more than 40 dates around the United States and Canada. During the triumphal Madison Square Garden concert, Zucchero invited on stage Sting, Sam Moore, Fher, of Mana, Elisa, Jovanotti, Fiorella Mannoia, Chris Botti, Monica Messinger, Andrea Griminelli and Irene Fornaciari.

During the Americana Tour 2014, Randy Jackson, Corrado Rustici, Don Was, Jimmy LaFave and Andy J. Forest all made guest appearances.

Zucchero was chosen as the headliner of th sold out 18 city German "Night of the promsms" arena tour.

April 29th 2016 saw the release of Black Cat (Universal Music), a new studio album which Zucchero presented live on the Black Cat Tour 2016. The tour kicked off at the Verona Arena on September 16th with the extraordinary "10 + 1" shows, and between October 1st and November 15th 2016 it became the "Black Cat World Tour," enjoying enormous success among an international audience. On November 25th the "BLACK CAT DELUXE EDITION" was released, a box set containing 2 CDs and 1 DVD to mark the great success of ZUCCHERO and his latest studio album "Black Cat."

In February 2017 Zucchero was, for the first time, a special guest at the Festival of Sanremo during the final evening of Italy's most famous song contest. In March, the "Black Cat World Tour" began again, this time taking in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Europe and South America, as Zucchero presented to the world the songs from "Black Cat" as well as all his greatest hits. In Italy, the "Black Cat World Tour" reached the city of Verona, where Zucchero set an extraordinary record of completing 22 concerts at the Verona Arena within a 12-month period (September 16-17-18-20-21-23-24-25-26-27-28 2016, May 1-2-3-4-5 2017 and September 20-21,22,23,24,25 2017).

On the "Black Cat World Tour," Zucchero played to over 1 million people in 611 cities, 67 countries and 5 continents.

November 2017 saw the release of "WANTED — THE BEST COLLECTION," celebrating the best of over 30 years of music and featuring live material from the Verona Arena shows, a docufilm with backstage footage as well as interviews, other special content and three brand new songs.

In February 2018 Zucchero played some of the most important indoor arenas in Italy during his "WANTED ITALIAN TOUR 2018," and all ten dates were sold out! Still in Italy, on July 3rd and 4th, Zucchero performed for the first time in Piazza San Marco, the first pop/rock artist to do so for seven years. The summer then took Zucchero on an international tour entitled "Summer Events and Festivals 2018," and he played at some of the most important festivals in Europe, including "British Summer Time" in Hyde Park, London, the Cornbury Music Festival in Oxfordshire, the Bospop Festival in the Netherlands, as well as events in Croatia, France, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, in other words, pretty much the whole of Europe.

In October, Zucchero was awarded the TENCO ARTISTA PRIZE 2018 (the most prestigious recognition for Italian singer-songwriters) during the 42nd edition of the TENCO AWARDS.